Feeling Nauseated and Heading for the Pepto? Wait!

We all get queasy from time to time.

Whether we ate a piece of fish that didn’t taste quite right, we had one too many gluten-free neat vodkas at the company holiday party or for those of us girls, we’re going through a certain time of the month, the resulting upset stomach and nauseated feelings are one in the same, and not exactly enjoyable.

For many, it’s a beeline straight to the franchise drug store for some good old TUMS or Pepto Bismol.

Unfortunately, not only is taking something like the products listed above not only a band-aid (treating the symptom without addressing the cause), it can actually cause further gastric distress.

For example, some formulas of TUMS contains the sugar alcohol, sorbitol which is a sugar alcohol used as a binding agent, thus allowing the signature round shape. However, sorbitol is also clinically used as a laxative, so guess what might happen when you take some in an attempt to deal with gastric distress?

With Pepto, sure, it’ll ‘coat your stomach’, but coat it with what? How about a nice mixture of :

Magnesium 25 mg

Sodium 8 mg.

Salicylate 261 mg.

Benzoic Acid

D&C Red No. 22

D&C Red No. 28

Saccharin sodium

Nothing like a little Sweet & Low to soothe an upset stomach, right?

Wrong.

Why not trouble shoot what you ate in the first place and figure out what made you feel ill?

If it’s short lived, just a day or so, you may be fine with natural remedies like ginger root, turmeric, oil of oregano and peppermint extract, all of which can help soothe. Charcoal tablets can also be helpful in absorbing accidentally ingested bacteria.

If it lasts longer than a day or two, or if your symptoms are severe, check in with your naturopath or functional med doc, and see if testing is in order, such as a stool sample.

Unpleasant, yes, but better to get straight to the root of the problem asap rather than go about your day to day life with discomfort, while a parasite thrives in your gut.

And, by the way, the alkaline nature of the no white sugar Paleo diet is quite conducive to gut health.